3 takeaways from Texas football’s lethargic loss to TCU
Quinn Ewers managed to look as bad as he did against Oklahoma State
It’s hard for a quarterback with as much talent around him to look as out of rhythm as Ewers did in this game. And it brought back reminders of the version of Ewers that we saw in the loss to the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Oct. 22.
On some level, it doesn’t make sense that Ewers looked so bad in this game, especially when you compare it to the loss to the Pokes. Oklahoma State has some good edge rushers that made life tough for the freshman quarterback. And Stillwater was a tough place to play for Ewers.
Yet, I was super confident this week that Ewers was going to be good against a TCU pass defense that was very beatable in previous games this season.
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Somehow TCU came into this game ready to make Ewers look like a freshman, and more. TCU held Ewers to 17 completions on 39 passing attempts, good for 171 passing yards, no passing touchdowns, and one interception. And that interception was pretty bad, as Ewers underthrow Xavier Worthy on a deep ball, and senior corner Trevius Hodges-Tomlinson took full advantage to make the in-air adjustment and come down with the pick.
Throughout most of this game, Ewers was missing reads and getting rattled in the pocket. TCU wasn’t getting a ton of pressure on him, but he wasn’t making the easy throws to get himself in rhythm and get the offense moving down the field.
Instead, Ewers kept getting tunnel vision on Worthy, resulting in numerous wasted plays.
This leads me to believe that it would be smart to see Sark come out of the locker room for the third quarter with Hudson Card leading the offense. Card played really well in Texas’ Oct. 1 win over the West Virginia Mountaineers. And the offense desperately needed a spark in the second half.
I must also say that the communication and chemistry between Ewers and these receivers is terrible of late. In the losses to TCU and Oklahoma State, Ewers has looked completely lost and is often on a completely different page than his wideouts.
That must get fixed if Texas wants to have any shot to beat one, or both, of the Kansas Jayhawks and Baylor Bears to round out the regular season.